The university has a variety of tools to communicate with the public in the event of emergencies. Depending on the type and timing of the emergency, tools such as the Campus Alert system (text, phone, email), local media and usd.edu website will be used to inform faculty, staff and students of the emergency.

Alerts (weather, natural disasters, cancellation of classes, campus alerts, etc.) will appear at the top of web and myUSD portal pages.

Depending on the nature of the crisis, the university may hold a series of press briefings.